First the good news, England
kept a clean sheet for a change and Germany lost earlier in the day, and
that's about it really. The England fans have had to endure some pretty
poor performances over the years and this World Cup Finals match against
one of the so called minnows of the tournament ranks with the best of
them.

Whenever I write an
England match report I try so hard to review the game with a measured
and calculated eye, as I don't wish to be too critical. But this game
really does test one's resolve.

Right from the first
whistle there was precious little effort or cohesion in England's play
and for the first half hour the team rarely strung two passes together.
The first touch, so crucial at this level, (or any other level for that
matter), was missing from most of the England players, and more worrying
was the fact that we constantly gave the ball away and were second to
almost every loose ball. The Algerian players couldn't believe their
luck as they had acres of space to pass and move. To be fair they did
it well and, it pains me to say this, England chased shadows for much of
the first half. How can players that look so good for nine months of
the year look so poor when it matters most? Even our star man, Wayne
Rooney, looked a pale shadow of the player we know he can be. Was he
injured, was he tired, or was he just trying too hard? Who knows?

The early moments saw
Robert Green's replacement David James tested with a dropping cross and
he elected to punch, somewhat unconvincingly. The ball went to Glen
Johnson who skewed his clearance before England cleared. Having said
that, there was no doubt that James was one of the few successes of a
miserable evening. He rose to the pressure he must have been under and
gave a classy and assured performance in goal. It certainly showed that
the rest of the defenders had confidence in their goalkeeper. At the
other end the best chance fell to Frank Lampard who hit a left-foot shot
to the Algerian replacement goalkeeper's left but Rais M Boli got down
well to save. He too, gave a good performance on the night.

Goal attempts at either
end were few and far between although both defences looked jittery at
times. Both attacks lacked that extra something in the final third and
although shots went wide or over there were few worth mentioning in the
report of the first half. On a plus note it was good to see Gareth
Barry back in the side and he did the job expected of him simply and
effectively. Unfortunately too many players around him were having off
days. Heskey worked hard, but his touch was missing, Aaron Lennon just
could not get into the match, Ashley Cole looked disinterested and had
none of his normal zest, Gerrard and Lampard spluttered along and Rooney
had probably the worst game of his career to date! No wonder the
manager was going apoplectic on the line, I know how he feels as I was
doing the same.

In recent England
matches there has been a distinct improvement from the team in the
second half. This was not one of those days, as the match followed
almost exactly the same pattern after the break. To make matters worse
Jamie Carragher picked up another booking and will now miss the crucial
game against Slovenia. The referee was over fussy at times and never
really understood the English game as several innocuous challenges were
punished with free-kicks, mainly because the Algerians fell to ground
at the slightest touch, a frustrating habit of most teams at this
tournament. England could muster very few goal chances and the players
seemed reluctant to take the responsibility to shoot. Gerrard elected
to pull the ball back when normally, at Anfield, he would have drilled
the ball into the far corner from the position he was in. Heskey tried
an 'Ali Shuffle', almost tripping himself up, before shooting well over,
and both Lampard and Gerrard shot well wide from good positions.
Lennon's last touch almost gave Rooney a free header only for a defender
to just stretch enough to touch it away from him.

Manager Fabio Capello,
really 'enjoying' his 64th birthday, then sent on Shaun
Wright-Phillips for Lennon, and later, Jermaine Defoe for Heskey. Both
players looked a little more lively, but apart from one shot from Defoe
that flew over, there was no difference in the lacklustre England
attack. The late introduction of Peter Crouch for the industrious Barry
was a token gesture from Capello that had no effect on the play.

So, we now have to play
Slovenia in a game we must win to qualify for the next phase. It is a
scenario we didn't really expect but maybe, just maybe, it will bring
the best out of the players next week.